hand does not prevent a criminal being traced if his prints were taken
before he lost the five digits. In the case of one hand being
amputated, the missing fingers are classified as they appear on the
other hand. If a search fails to locate the person, then the missing
fingers are classified first as whorls and then as loops, search being
made after each classification. In this manner the search may be a
little more tedious than it would be if all the fingers were there, but
in time he would be identified.

The Department of Justice thinks so well of the system that it has
recently established in Washington a Bureau of Criminal Registry. There
the finger-print sheets, and for the time being Bertillon cards, of
all criminals who have been convicted of violating federal laws are to
be kept. The prints and Bertillon measurements of new arrivals at
government prisons and jails will also be sent there for classification,
none of this work being done at prisons as heretofore. The men held
in federal jails, charged with crimes, are also to have their
finger-prints taken, and these sent to the central bureau. If the
expert in charge of this bureau ascertains that a man indicted for
crime has served a previous term in prison, this fact is to be
communicated to the United States judge and district attorney, and if
convicted the criminal is to be given the full limit of sentence.

Although the system of identification by fingerprints has been in use
in Europe for a number of years, it is not a European invention. As a
matter of fact, it is one of those cherished western institutions that
the Chinese have calmly claimed for their own, and those who doubt
this may be convinced by actual history showing it to have been
employed in the police courts of British India for a generation or so
back. Just who was responsible for its adoption there is not certain,